WORCESTER – As the Worcester schools begin a new campaign to lower their suspension rates, a new report shows the district is an outlier in the state for its use of another mechanism for removing students from school.

The first recipient of Roger Williams University (RWU) Law’s new Opportunity Scholarship says she’ll use it to help change her world – bringing the power of the law to bear for the poor and disadvantaged, particularly in the field of education.

“When I got the call that I’d been selected for the scholarship, I was so excited,” says first-year law student Leighann Agyemang. “I’m the first in my family to attend law school. I commute from Worcester every day, and I basically have no help. It’s me doing everything for myself, so this award provides an extra boost that really helps.”

Community Legal Aid (CLA) is proud to announce that Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, Managing Attorney of CLA’s Worcester office, has been selected for the Leadership Worcester Class of 2019. Chosen from a pool of 60 candidates, Ms. Nelson-Davies joins 27 other professionals from private businesses, non-profits and public entities based throughout the Worcester area. Beginning in September, the Class of 2019 will embark on a nine-month program to learn about our community and take an active role in its betterment.

Community Legal Aid (CLA) is pleased to acknowledge a generous three-year grant that it has received from the United Way of Hampshire County to address veterans’ civil legal needs. CLA will work closely with the Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center to improve the health of Hampshire County’s veterans and their families by tackling their unmet health-harming legal needs. These legal needs include discharge status upgrades (leading to increased eligibility for veteran-specific services) and access to affordable housing, healthcare and benefits programs.

At the beginning of April 2018 Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies became the Managing Attorney of CLA’s Worcester office. Weayonnoh has been a staff attorney at CLA for several years, specializing in public benefits advocacy and spearheading CLA’s medical-legal partnership with UMass Memorial Healthcare. Before joining our staff she worked as a Bart Gordon Fellow and staff attorney at South Coastal Counties Legal Services. Weayonnoh was born and raised in Liberia before immigrating to the U.S. during Liberia’s civil war.